Micromechanics method to study the effect of domain switching on fracture behavior of polycrystalline ferroelectric ceramics

The effect of domain switching on anisotropic fracture behavior of polycrystalline ferroelectric ceramics was revealed on the basis of the micromechanics method. Firstly, the electroelastic field inside and outside an inclusion in an infinite ferroelectric ceramics is carried out by the way of Eshelby-Mori-Tanaka's theory and a statistical model, which accounts for the influence of domain switching. Further, the crack extension force (energy-release rate) Gext for a penny-shape crack inside an effective polycrystalline ferroelectric ceramics is derived to estimate the averaged effect of domain switching on the fracture behavior of polycrystalline ferroelectric ceramics. The simulations of the crack extension force for a crack in a BaTiO3 ceramics are shown that the effect of domain switching must be taken into consideration while analyzing the fracture behavior of polycrystalline ferroelectric ceramics. These results also demonstrate that the influence of the applied electric field on the crack propagation is more profound at smaller mechanical loading and the applied electric field may enhance the crack extension in a sense, which are consistent with the experimental results.